


Quality Time

by CmonCmon



Series: Raising Warriors [12]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: 99 is the Best Vod, Clone Bros feels, Clone Mom and Clone Dad, Everyone lives, F/M, M/M, Rancor Feels, Soft Wars, Star Wars AU - Soft Wars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26034727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CmonCmon/pseuds/CmonCmon
Summary: A peaceful moment with friends to celebrate the successful defense of Kamino
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Colt (Star Wars)/Shaak Ti
Series: Raising Warriors [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835518
Comments: 46
Kudos: 314
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars





	Quality Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/gifts), [Primarybufferpanel (ArwenLune)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/gifts).



> There are a lot of Soft Wars references mixed in here, so you should all go read Projie's Soft Wars.
> 
> Thanks to PrimaryBufferPanel and Jac with the secret AO3 for all the help getting this on the page!

“Ah, there is the man of the hour,” Obi-Wan said, hand resting on Shaak’s elbow. She turned to the door as Commander Cody and Captain Rex moved to greet 99, Skywalker trailing his Captain like a junior padawan.

Colt stood behind 99, one hand resting on his shoulder. Protectively, Shaak knew, even though 99 was up and about well before Colt recovered enough to be allowed outside the infirmary. Shaak would have demanded both be moved to bacta tanks if it wasn’t for Pots’ very careful explanation of the unwritten rules of the Kaminoan medical facilities compared to the battlefield.

Her Commander was not fully recovered, but Obi-Wan, Skywalker, and their men would leave come morning. Colt was well enough to see his brothers before they left. She was glad he had the opportunity, considering the way they huddled together.

Unlike the Commander and the Captain, Colt was not in his armor. Instead, he was in the pants from his grey dress uniform and a loose black top that allowed for his bandages. Shaak couldn’t help but study him for traces of his injuries. She’d seen the healing wound, knew it would scar, but the knowledge that he would have died without a few brave cadets making a foolish choice still concerned her. 

“Enough of that,” Obi-Wan said, smoothing a hand on her back. “We are celebrating.”

Sometimes, Shaak did forget what it was like to be surrounded by her fellow Jedi. It was rare to have another Jedi on Kamino, to be near someone who might pick up impressions _from her_.

“He knows about the cargo?” Obi-Wan glanced towards Colt, in a knot with the other brothers, discussing something with enthusiasm.

“He does. He helped me locate… the cargo.” In a manner. 

Shaak’s goodbye to Ottoo had been shorter than she would have wanted. Colt’s had been barely a moment before the little brother was loaded, giggling all the way, into an armor storage crate and carried aboard the Resolute under the guise of returning gear to recovering troopers.

“And your Commander Cody knows?” Shaak wouldn’t tease her friend, but his relationship with his Commander was noticeably different than the one he had with others, even his own former padawan. 

“Of course. I will need his assistance to ensure safe handling.” Obi-Wan’s tone was warm, teasing. 

He would leave, along with Skywalker, and Shaak would be the only Jedi on Kamino again. 

But, there were more pressing concerns. 

There would be those who would find Ottoo a complication to an efficient system. A risk not worth taking. “I trust you will find an appropriate place for our precious cargo.”

Rancor command were the only ones Colt had included in the plan, and they had been fascinated by Ottoo. The possibility of one of their own becoming a Jedi had been a deeply emotional realization for them in ways Shaak didn’t fully understand. To Colt and his brothers, there seemed to be some fundamental distance between them and other beings that the truth about Ottoo might close.

“You can see for yourself when you come for the next council session. Though you might end up bringing your Commander to Coruscant. You can expect paperwork arriving shortly. Cody has been calling them in for planning meeting.” Obi-Wan made a low sound, part reassurance, part considering. “But until then, there will be many willing volunteers to attend to our cargo in transit.”

Shaak laughed at that, and Colt caught her eye from across the room. 

He was always so aware of her, and no less after the battle. If it was more so, she was the one to blame. Shaak had meditated over her own feelings. She had long understood the harsh realities of war, but to see him so badly hurt in the space they had shared in relative peace, against an opponent he should never have faced alone? 

Someday, she could discuss her own choices tactically with him, find some resolution with the choices she had made. 

Instead, she had kissed him.

 _Why?_ Shaak couldn’t fully explain to herself. She hadn’t even attempted to explain to him. 

_Because she’d wanted to_ , that was the easiest reason to admit to herself. She had wanted to before, and the emotion of the moment had overcome her sense of boundaries. 

Some sort of misplaced anger at the thought of Ventress taking something from him that he ought to decide to give? Perhaps, but there had been nothing to suggest that was his feeling on the matter. Maybe it was only hers. Other than his first jokes on the subject, with meds fogging his thoughts, Colt had never brought up showing the security footage to anyone else. 

Colt approached cautiously, as if he was the Jedi and picking up the direction of her thoughts. “Generals, if you wouldn’t mind. The Marshal Commander has something for 99.”

Shaak told herself the formality was for Obi-Wan, but she was not perfectly convinced. 

“Of course, Commander.” Obi-Wan kept a hand on Shaak’s arm as they approached the knot of brothers. Rex and Cody flanked 99, who stood at attention between the two officers. 

The Marshal Commander nodded once to his own General and Obi-Wan must have known what was planned because he saluted 99. “On behalf of the Republic, we thank you for your vaillant service.”

“I’m proud to serve beside you in the field.” Cody said, as his General pinned a medal of valor on his brother who had only ever been considered fit for a maintenance duty assignment. 

“Thank you, General.” 99 saluted. Shaak and Obi-Wan bowed their heads in return. Cody, Colt and Rex returned his salute. “Sirs.”

After that, the two Masters moved to the edge of the meeting room and the Commanders sent off comms to their brothers. Skywalker had no hesitations throwing himself in amongst the others. Obi-Wan stepped away long enough to set out some bottles from a gear crate and vaguely gesture that he would leave the men to it.

That was smarter. Leave them to enjoy the rest of their last evening together, and Shaak could have a pot of tea with Kenobi in her rooms, feel more herself for a bit. Then, they would depart come morning and things would return to the way they were before. Leaving _would_ be the wise choice.

“Sir.” Cody caught sight of his General’s plans. “You’ll celebrate with us, won’t you?”

“Oh, only if we aren’t intruding, Cody?” Obi-Wan’s all warm teasing and smiling eyes. Shaak felt the vicious tug of envy. Did she ever allow herself to look at Colt like that? 

_Allow herself_ would suggest she wanted to. It would also suggest there was something _to be allowed_. It was not a line of thinking she could pursue at the moment.

Distraction came in the form of those from the units invited to join the group already assembled. Blitz, Havoc, Pots, and Hammer, accompanied by Trib, who Shaak had learned was a _close friend_ of Blitz’s. She didn’t know all of their visiting brothers, but she knew full well that all of Domino Squad came in and went directly to 99 to _ooh_ and _aah_ appropriately over his medal.

Domino had matured quickly. She supposed most of them did, but the opportunity to see that for herself was rare. Shaak had seen so many brothers go from cadets to troopers, but she had seen very few grow into their maturity in ways that were not measured in growth cycles.

She watched as Colt took Echo and Fives aside for a moment, and Shaak wondered what tactics were being critiqued or applauded. Her Commander could not turn off that side of him for an hour, let alone an entire party.

At some point, Obi-Wan returned with a drink for her, and both Commander Cody and Captain Rex came over to say something appropriately kind about her role in the battle, but Shaak was struck by how different the evening felt from her ‘command meeting’ with Rancor. To the other brothers in the room, she was simply another foreign, distant Jedi. It was different with her own men, and Shaak had clearly not valued that appropriately before now.

“Sir, if you wouldn’t mind? Can you back us up here? ” Havoc glanced over to Blitz and back to her. “We’ve been trying to tell them that Commander Tano isn’t the only one who goes around killing Akul.”

Blitz grinned at her. “We hoped you’d tell them the story you told us. Set ‘em straight.”

Obi-Wan limited himself to one amused huff into his beard, and Shaak inclined her head. It wasn’t a command meeting, but her men were still her men, and if she could support them… How did Colt put it? 

_Oya._

Shaak took one fortifying sip of her drink and crossed the room to sit with the men. 

She did tell them, and she could see the Torrent troopers slowly accept that like the Jedi they were more familiar with, Shaak herself might also be something close to human. The Rancor men were more comfortable, sharing their space and conversation with her like they all did this regularly.

Almost all the Rancor men. Colt was quiet, even for his usual demeanor. Eventually, he fell into conversation with Commander Cody a bit apart from the other brothers. It was a private conversation in lower voices, but Shaak could visibly see him grow more comfortable. Before long, Captain Rex joined him, and Colt’s mood shifted again.

From where she sat with the others, Shaak could observe them without interfering. There was something resonant between Colt and the Marshal Commander, something warm and sure that seemed to radiate. When Rex approached, Colt was friendly but almost reserved, before the blond started speaking. From the lopsided grin and the clear, deliberate hand gestures, it was a joke, and by the time he reached the end of it, both of the Commanders laughed, Colt reaching out to shove at the Captain like a cadet would, and Rex shoved him back.

“Gev, vod,” Blitz waved at them. “Leave our Commander be. Hard enough to get him to rest without Pots topping him up. He’s recovering.”

“Yeah?” Rex’s grin widened, tapping his fingers twice on his bracer. “Someone should have told him that when he’d spend all day giving me bruises during ARC training. I had a broken collarbone.”

“He had a _freshly healed_ collarbone,” Colt corrected. “And I wouldn’t have given you bruises if you’d kept your blocks in place.”

That set all of Rancor to laughing, and a scowl on Rex’s face. “Sure, laugh. None of you had to be trained by him.”

“You think he’s _any different_ every single day on the sparring mats with us?” Havoc squawked.

That got Colt laughing hard enough one hand moved protectively to his bad side.

“Different now because of his staff training.” Havoc kept his expression perfectly innocent. “Did he tell you about that, sirs?” 

Colt looked like he would happily send Havoc out to run laps. Shaak felt her lekku flush and deliberately did not look to see if Obi-Wan noticed it as he sat beside her.

“Is _that_ what the next crop of ARCs will be learning?” Rex’s eyes were dancing with mischief. 

“So we could spar.” Shaak gave it her best indifferent Jedi voice, letting the men turn their attention to her and away from her blushing Commander. “I found the training droids lacking in creativity.” Both of those things were true, as far as she knew. Colt had never mentioned specifically why he wanted to learn, but she couldn’t believe it was to spend more time torturing Alpha-6.

“Training droids are dreadfully dull,” Obi-Wan agreed with perfect seriousness. Shaak sent a wave of gratitude his way.

“Never hurts to learn something new, does it?” Colt shrugged his good shoulder, a little smile directed at the Captain.

Cody threw an arm around Colt and pressed a drink into his hand. “You sound like you’ve been spending too much time talking with Bly and Gree.” 

Her Commander shot her one dismayed glance before surrendering to the care of his brothers.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has a bit of a part 2 in the next one in the series, but they were split for length and complexity.
> 
> Ottoo is 'dead' and being babysat by some very excited ori'vode until everyone is off Kamino, but I'm sure he'll come up again in the future. 
> 
> You better believe Colt took Fives and Echo aside. He knows ARC-ready vode when he sees them. Just need to pry those vod'ikase out of Rex's hands long enough to get them their kamas....


End file.
